[ENDOSCOPIC TREATMENT OF EARLY GASTRIC CANCER ANDPRECANCEROUS GASTRIC LESIONS WITH MUCOSECTOMY]

The endoscopic treatment of early gastric cancer with mucosectomy has increasingly proved to be an effective modality for local treatment, especially if the tumor is limited to the mucosa, of a size no greater than 3 cm, with no histologic ulceration nor lymphatic vessel invasion and a cancer-negative resection line. The mucosectomy has also proved to be useful in the resection of precancerous lesions such as adenomas. Over a period of two years (1996-1997), five patients (three men and two women), who were diagnosed early gastric cancer (four of them) and adenoma with moderate dysplasia (one of them), were treated with mucosectomy using a conventional endoscopic snare and pure coagulation current. A plecemeal technique was used to achieve complete removal in two of these patients.In all five cases complete removal was achieved in a single session with no complications. Two patients underwent radical surgery with not tumor remnant or metastatic lymph node present in the resected specimen. All patients have remained free of recurrence during an mean follow-up period of sixteen months (range of 9-29 months).The early gastric cancer and gastric adenomas can be sultably removed with mucosectomy by the appropriate selection of patients.